NeuroD1 is known to support and induce the neuronal differenciation during embryogenesis. Abhijeet Pataskar and colleagues discovered new epigenetics mechanisms underlying this essential role for the devlopment. Their ChIP-, FAIRE- and RNA-sequencing and motif analysis experiments show that NeuroD1 directly binds regulatory elements of neuronal genes that are embedded in heterochromatic environment. The induction of NeuroD1 initiates the reprogramming of transcription landscape, the conversion of heterochromatin to euchromatin and increased chromatin accessibility. Despite a transient NeuroD1 action, the authors report that the transcriptional induction of target neuronal genes persists for longer term via epigenetic memory. These data underline the importance of transcription factors and epigenetic mechanisms concerted action for the cell fate specification during development.